Does anyone know if there are any official accounts of the First and Second Anglo-Chinese Wars; and if so, are they available anywhere in print or electronic format? I suspect the answer to the latter part of the question is no, since I have failed miserably to find any, but I hope something may exist.

Mark had a quick dip when I was in the British Library checking something else in that copy of JSAHR. Cameron was an officer in the 26th. Not a great amount of operational detail but he gives a soldier's eye view of staff mismanagement, the impact on soldiers' health, the wastefulness of lives lost needlessly in a campaign fought in the shadow of hypocritical foreign policy. He writes well. The journal survived because he sent it home to his brother when he himself was ill with fever and thought he was going to die.

jf42 wrote:Mark had a quick dip when I was in the British Library checking something else in that copy of JSAHR. Cameron was an officer in the 26th. Not a great amount of operational detail but he gives a soldier's eye view of staff mismanagement, the impact on soldiers' health, the wastefulness of lives lost needlessly in a campaign fought in the shadow of hypocritical foreign policy. He writes well. The journal survived because he sent it home to his brother when he himself was ill with fever and thought he was going to die.

Thanks again, jf42! I am slowly building an index of sources for what might be a possible future book - although nothing is confirmed yet!

I come to this Post rather late but I can confirm a "No" but with a kind of "Yes" too. While there are no official accounts in the sense of Norie`s official account of the China Operations 1900-1901, the official Indian Govt publication, "Frontier & Overseas Expeditions From India" has over 100 pages (Vol VI) on the operations in both 1st and 2nd China Wars especially in respect of Indian troops or forces employed from India. The account is deemed "official". But in the true sense of what you mean we simply have accounts by men like Ouchterlony, Murray, Fisher and others.

I come to this Post rather late but I can confirm a "No" but with a kind of "Yes" too. While there are no official accounts in the sense of Norie`s official account of the China Operations 1900-1901, the official Indian Govt publication, "Frontier & Overseas Expeditions From India" has over 100 pages (Vol VI) on the operations in both 1st and 2nd China Wars especially in respect of Indian troops or forces employed from India. The account is deemed "official". But in the true sense of what you mean we simply have accounts by men like Ouchterlony, Murray, Fisher and others.

Thanks Bill, much appreciated. I do have the complete set of volumes of 'Frontier & Overseas Expeditions From India', so will definitely be using it in my upcoming project.